


jumpstart

by queermermaids



Series: Book of Nile Ficlets [2]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Middle School, F/M, Ficlet Collection, POV Nile Freeman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26261677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queermermaids/pseuds/queermermaids
Summary: poe39 asked:Grade school au where nile and booker meet at after school care.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman
Series: Book of Nile Ficlets [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1907971
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	jumpstart

**Author's Note:**

> w/ addition to the fic, [my answer](https://bookernile.tumblr.com/post/627932304026845184/grade-school-au-where-nile-and-booker-meet-at):
> 
> Awesome idea! If you can tell here I have a head canon that Booker doesn’t hit his full height until high school, so he’s shorter than Nile. lol

Nile’s after school days alternate from START on Monday & Wednesday, soccer practice on Tuesdays & Thursdays with Nicky, and boxing practice on Fridays with Andy and Joe. She has been pretty involved in after school extracurriculars ever since Elementary school, not just because it was amazing to do something after school, but also because she makes friends very quickly. It’s how she’s found herself two months new at this school with a whole group of people she eats lunch with, and hang out after school with.

Dad ordered a new license plate, which normally did not happen if they were staying for just a couple of months. Somehow Nile knew that they would be staying at least until she promoted to high school, though hopefully longer.

She snuck out of START after the first afternoon break. She was just going to the bathroom, but opened in the wrong door and learned that the library door was open, even after school. She looks around, before dipping inside and closing the door quietly behind her. The library was much cooler than the outside, and she closed her eyes for a second letting the AC cool her down.

Then she goes to her favorite section, and sits down. She pulls her phone out, and messages Jay back, also looking for any message from her mother saying she was outside. Nile laid her head back, and closed her eyes.

She opened them, focusing on a book right in front of her. She reaches up to grab it, and finds she can’t remove it. Nile stands up, grabbing and tugging it, falling backwards when it suddenly gets easier to pull, and hitting hard against the other shelf behind her. She knocks some books loose, and they fall to the floor around her.

One book falls on her head before landing on the floor, and it hurts.

“OW! What the hell?" 

She looks at the book still gripped in her hand, but it’s normal. The Three Musketeers, regular hardcover. Nothing that would have made it so hard to pull out.

"Oh shit, I’m so sorry,” Another person comes around the corner, the short dark-blond guy from her Pre-Algebra class, who was always on his phone under his hand.

“I did not mean to make you fall.”

She clutches the book to her chest, so she has one hand free, and tries to get up. He extends his hand and she takes it. When she’s standing again, Nile notices that he really was shorter than her.

“It’s fine, are you the only person here?” She looks around, to see if anyone else is going to come around the corner.

“Yeah just me.”

“Here, since you wanted it.” So badly, she thinks but doesn’t say.

“No you keep it, I didn’t mean to make you fall.“ He repeats.

She loops it underneath her arm, and gives him a once over.

"You’re in my Pre-Algebra class right, with Ms. Ruelas? In the back, always on your phone?”

“I’m not on my phone, I’m reading.”

Huh, so that’s why it’s never confiscated.

“Why are you always reading?”

“I took a bet with Nicky that I could read all of the books in the library by the time we graduate. If yes, I get 500 bucks, if I fail I loose 500.”

“Why would you take that bet,” that was a whole lot of money just gone.

“Joe convinced me.”

“How are you friends with all of my friends and I’ve never talked to you?”

“Nile right? You sit in the front in Pre-Algebra, you answer a bunch of questions, and you’re new. And I don’t have the same lunch as the rest of you.”

“What’s your name?”

“Booker.”

She gives him a look, “Booker, the guy that reads everywhere, and is mysteriously in the library after school, your name is Booker.”

He shrugs, “Hey, that’s what people call me.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Ok sure, can you help me pick these up? I feel like if anyone catches us we’re already in trouble, don’t need to get into any more.”

They pick up the books and he explains the Dewey Decimal system to her. She’s already got it just by looking at the numbers before and after the books, and noticing where one is missing, but she listens to him.

And also calls him a nerd.

“So I see you’re the brains here”, and he smiles.

They hang out and read together quietly, talking about how much Ms. Ruelas loves to keep calling her out even though she doesn’t want to answer.

She gets up to go back to START and check herself out, when her mom texts her to say she’s on her way. 

“Nile,” she’s got her hands on the door to the library, “My name is Sebastien, le Livre. People call me Booker because of that.”

“Nile Freeman, I’m pleased to meet you,” she says embellishing and enjoying his laugh at it.

“Are you going to the soccer scrimmage tomorrow? We’re going to walk to 7/11 afterwards if you wanted to come.” She asks, crossing her fingers behind the door, hoping that wasn’t too forward.

“I wouldn’t miss it for anything."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! leave some kudos or a comment if you want! :)
> 
> [I am bookernile on tumblr](https://bookernile.tumblr.com) and my ask box is open, for questions/comments/random thoughts, I am not accepting prompts right now!! (but thank you!)


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